Do-Over on Soldier of Fortune II…

Behind the front lines:
I still vividly remember the day I was first exposed to Soldier of Fortune II. I was at a friend’s house for the weekend, and an improvised LAN party was thrown. We played Counterstrike until the wee hours of the morning. When half of the players fell asleep, we crowded around one person who was playing another game. It was Soldier of Fortune II. We watched him lean, strafe, dodge, snipe and shoot his way to the enemy flag, only to be sniped off. This game intrigued me, it had so much promise. The next morning when I awoke, I called my parents, asked them to pick me up (hey, I was young), and I went and bought the game. Thankfully, that was during Christmas break. By midsummer the following year, I was playing SoFII for up to 40 hours a week. I was able to pull down a 75:5 kill: death ratio. I was called a hacker due to my skills. Those were the days.

Introduction:
Soldier of Fortune II is a first person shooter (FPS) from Raven Software released in North America on May 22, 2002. It was the much-anticipated follow up to Soldier of Fortune.

Minimum Spec -
Pentium II 450 MHz, 128 MB RAM, TNT 16 MB Graphics Card.
Max Resolution: 640x480, Detail: Low

Middle Spec -
Pentium III 850 MHz, 128 MB RAM, GeForce 2 Graphics Card.
Max Resolution: 800x600, Detail: Medium

High Spec -
Pentium 4 1.5 GHz, 256 MB RAM, GeForce 3 Graphics Card.
Max Resolution: 1024x768, Detail: High

Max Spec -
Pentium 4 2 GHz, 512 MB RAM, Next Gen Graphics Card.
Max Resolution: 1280x1024, Detail: Max

Developer Raven Software
Publisher Activision
Release Date May 22, 2002
ESRB Mature

Setup & Install:

Installation is straightforward. The game is on two discs, so you will be swapping discs, but it is a quick install. The game comes with DirectX 8.1, so unless you have something older than that installed (very unlikely), do not install that.

The latest patch is 1.3, which was released in 2003. Do not expect any more patches. The current patch is readily available online.

Graphics & Sound:
At the time, the graphics and sound were some of the best produced. However, PC graphics and audio do not stand up to the test of time. It uses the Quake III: Team Arena Engine Technology, which is enhanced with GHOUL2 Rendering Technology.

The frame rate can max out at around 115FPS. Any modern computer can run the game beautifully on merely integrated graphics. Running the game on a 7800GTX over a FX5200 will provide no real gain in quality or frame rates.

The audio is stereo, there is no surround sound or anything of that nature. The background music reflects the tone of the game match and the surroundings, but any true gamer should be listening to footsteps, not music.

You should be fine running everything on maximum, at the highest resolution your hardware supports. It is not very taxing on current systems, so you will not have any problems playing the game.

Game Setup:
The game settings are easily changed. You have full control over your player’s model in most games, and in terrorist versus counter terrorist matches, you still have a choice in your model. Your HUD has some changes that you can make, and your weapons outfitting can be changed for each spawn.

Single Player:

Quote: Reprise the role of John Mullins: Weapons Specialist, Anti-Terrorist Mercenary and "Military Consultant." A new and insidious threat has arisen in the form of a bio-terrorist organization and their two-pronged Gemini Virus. Now, you're off on a transcontinental mission to stop the terrorists and destroy the virus before it's unleashed on humanity. Full frontal assaults, stealth and subterfuge are your tactics. Sub-machine guns, assault rifles and grenades are your tools. The world is on the brink of disaster. Get ready for one of the most realistic military shooter game play experiences ever. Failure is not an option.

Single player mode has approximately ten missions, spanning around sixty levels. It at times gets tedious, as the artificial intelligence is not the greatest around. It should give you somewhere around ten to fifteen hours of single player game play.


Multiplayer:

Multiplayer is this games highlight. There are literally hundreds of player models, and countless of hours of game play available from the game. SoFII was directed toward the mod community, so numerous complete overhaul mods exist for the game. Third party map creation is also very nice, with dozens of additional maps available for download. There are many websites devoted to files for this games, one of which is SOFFiles.

The default game browser is decent, covers all the basics. A very rudimentary friend finder exists, but you can use X-fire. You will not have problems finding servers or other players. Even to this day, many SoFII clans still exists, with many dedicated servers and thousands of games at any given time.

Conclusion:
Soldier of Fortune II is a solid game, it has no real bugs with the patches provided by Raven Software. Its single player is not the real gem, but its multiplayer gives it its appeal. It is definitely worth a do over, or more precisely 8 out of 10 do-overs.

This game still provides hours upon hours of entertainment. When I loaded it up to play so I could write this Do Over, I found myself still playing the game two hours later. It is a great game for LAN parties, or just for letting off steam. The graphics may not compare to modern day games such as Battlefield 2, but the game play really gives it its unique character.
The game is sold for around $20 new for PC, and around $10 used online. An X-Box version was released on June 17, 2003, and is available for around $10 used.